Cupboard #3

Where: Capitol Hill, Seattle, WA
When: 5:30 PM, Sunday
Who: Melissa & Dan, Sinophile/project manager and physician, foodies
Favorite quick meal: cabbage with a fried egg on top

Cupboard #2

When: Tuesday, March 2, about 11 AM
Where: Richmond, MA
Who: My parents, physicians, health care activist and poet, respectively
Favorite quick meal: scrambled local egg on whole wheat toast with olive oil and fresh ground pepper (Mom) and Guilin noodles (Dad)

The Cupboards of Others

When: Friday, February 12, 10 PM
Where: Near Fenway, Boston, MA
Who: Physician, poet
Favorite quick meal: garlic toast

We all have our secret guilty pleasures. A few of mine include: buying dresses for $5 at the Urban Outfitters bargain basement, reading US Weekly in airport lounges, eating anchovy stuffed green olives out of the jar when I can't sleep, sifting through remainders at Harvard Books Store, and watching The Bachelor over breakfast on Tuesday mornings. These are habits I do not often disclose without a few Jim Beams in my system. There is one other guilty secret that, until now, I've managed to safely keep under wraps, except from a few close friends: I love to see what people have in their cupboards.

I know bookshelves, iTunes libraries, and medicine cabinets are where we tend to snoop at first. But for me, so much is revealed by what someone likes to cook. What kind of spices do they have? Are the cupboards bare or do they seem to be preparing for Y2K? Are they bakers or pasta eaters? Do they shop at Whole Foods or Star Market? I once was at a friend's house and found 15 pounds of dried pasta and 10 jars of tomato sauce in his pantry. Priceless.

I usually get caught. But the host, though a bit embarrassed, always laughs and often moves to show me the contents of the fridge. At that point I demure. There's something so much more personal about what one keeps in the refrigerator.

My new side project here on the Student Epicure is going to be to start collecting photographs of my findings. Let me know what you think!